The Reunion of Mother and Child
by Kingfish
Summary: Not everything died in the Northern Crater. As impending danger looms over the world again, are the members of AVALANCHE willing to get back together with their own individual, busy lives? Sit back, enjoy, and REVIEW!
1. Rebirth in the Lifestream

Chapter One: Rebirth in the Lifestream  
  
The cold air surrounding the cavern was heavy and dark, swirling in large wisps of thick, black mist among the lifeless rocks. Inside the Northern Cave was equally as eerie, being that no life existed. Not even the hordes of monsters that once crawled and skulked around inside the forbidden crevices could be seen or heard. The cave was silent and dark, only the occasional chilling whistle of the wind across the lips of the chasm filling its walls.  
  
The cave was silent and dark, that is, in every place but one. One air pocket, fathoms down into the cavern, was alive. Trapped by a rockfall that occurred some years earlier from a devastating release of incalculable energy, known now as The Great Battle of the Elements, the clash between Meteor and Holy. This tiny room in the expansive cave was alive, lit by the dim electric-green light of Lifestream that bubbled in the far corner. The Lifestream illuminated the entire room, pressing against the walls like a glowing coat of green paint. But most interestingly, it illuminated something in the room that wasn't there originally. Something grotesque, but something beautiful at the same time. Remains. The remains of a woman, her legs and arms missing, but her torso and head covered in an aura independent from the Lifestream. Her head was beautiful, partially obscured by a broken helmet, which had once covered her face down to the eyes. One eye could be seen now, blue and brilliant like a sapphire.   
  
She was a mother, and yes, she certainly was still alive. The unique cells inside her body kept her from dying, evening without arms or legs. Or mind. No, this mother would keep on living, whether it be in herself, of within the confines of one of her Unfortunates, as the world now popularly called them. Her body lay there, still and inanimate, her blue eye unblinking and unmoving, her mouth set agape. She was ShinRa's brainchild, the Earth's daughter, and Creation's dictator. She was Jenova, now known amongst scholars as the Queen of the Cetra (or the Ancients, a term used mostly by commoners).  
  
The Lifestream across from the body began to bubble more violently now, the liquid churning up and spilling over into the room, a maelstrom beginning to develop in the pool. The water swirled for moments more, until something shot up out of the rock so harshly that it began to crumble under its fingers, and it began to pull the rest of its body out of the glowing pool. A man emerged naked, stepping onto the cold ground and kneeling, trying to regain energy. He stood over six feet, his body lean but broad and strong, muscles rippling under his tight skin. His face was chiseled and sharp, two blue-green eyes fit for an eagle rested firmly atop his high cheekbones. And he had platinum hair. Long, now wet, but flowing platinum hair that went down to his ankles. The man stood there in perfect still for some time, then his head began to turn slowly, his large and haunting eyes scanning the room. And he saw her. He saw his mother, the First Unfortunate, and a tight smile curled in his mouth. The first time he smiled in three years.   
  
He walked to the limbless figure and knelt down, reaching out to touch her naked shoulder. Yes, he used her three years ago. Used her and discarded her carelessly. His brilliant eyes narrowed, taking in the full light of his mistakes. She should have been with through it all.  
  
You and me, mother. We could have brought the world crumbling down before us. I was selfish and foolish to think that I could have done this on my own.  
  
But now, he had another chance. His remaining strength allowed to keep his form and soul intact in the violent Lifestream, cursing himself for three years by having been beaten by a band of miscreant peasants and mercenaries. Now, he had a chance to redeem himself. Now, he and his mother would return to each other, a fusion that would shake Creation to it's very foundation. Yes, he thought, looking up at the glistening walls of the damp cave, and then his mother. This time, the Unfortunate will reign supreme in the caring arms of his Mother. 


	2. Contemplating the Renunion of the Miscre...

Chapter Two: Contemplating the Reunion of the Miscreants  
  
Barret finished downing his twelfth beer, his huge black arm slamming the glass down on the bar. He called out for another. "Yo, barkeep. Whatcha doin'? My glass's empty!" Before the bartender could reply, Barret turned his head to the mercenary sitting beside him, his hair and blonde and annoyingly spiky as ever. He frowned, upset that he wasn't talking. He spoke in a loud, thundering voice, causing all the other patrons of the bar to nearly jump out of their seats.  
  
"Yo, Cloud! S'been three years since we were talkin' to each other, THREE! Now we're here at Kalm, sittin' in a bar, and yer punk ass STILL ain't talkin' to me!" He grunted, bringing his gun-arm up to rest on the hardwood of the bar, staring at Cloud in mild disgust. The rest of the bar was silent for a moment, staring in pure surprise at the huge black man, then went back to talking again. Cloud turned his head slowly to Barret from its hung position, his Mako-infused eyes glowing in some aggravation at the scene Barret just made. He simply gave in. "Okay, Barret. What do you want me to say?"  
  
"Oh, I dunno. How 'bout a ''Ey, Barret. How ya doin? Thanks fer yo help wit da whole Sephiroth unleashin' his terrible wrath upon humanity wit WEAPON an' Meteor thang'?"  
  
Cloud nodded. "Hm, that's funny."  
  
"What's funny?"  
  
"You knew humanity was a word? And you used it in the correct context, too."  
  
"See, this's what I'm talkin' 'bout. Yo punk ass can't neva own up to yo mistakes."  
  
"Oh, I own up to my mistakes," Cloud replied to the monstrous man. "It's just that I don't make any."  
  
Barret shook his head. "I jes' realized that I should whooped yo spiky-head ass when I first saw ya." He gulped on his beer. Cloud did too.   
  
"Ain't that a bitch," Cloud said.   
  
There was a few moments of silence between the two men, Cloud staring blankly ahead, his black-gloved hand resting on the butt of his gargantuan buster sword, tracing up and down the long handle with his fingers. Barret was crawling even deeper into his beer mug, the crowded bar getting even emptier after each glass he finished. After a few more moments, Barret spoke again, his loud, slurring voice bouncing off the walls of the inn like a boulder off a mountain. "Y'know, Cloud, I've been thinkin'."  
  
"That's pretty scary."  
  
Barret slammed his beer on the bar, the glass shattering. "I'm serious, man!"  
  
"Okay, okay." Cloud cried, throwing his hands up in the air. "What?"  
  
Barret's inebriated smiled returned, and he threw his arm around Cloud, tugging him in. "Let's get the ol' team back togetha."  
  
"What team?"  
  
"What mothafuckin' team do you THINK I'm talkin' 'bout? AVALANCHE, man!"  
  
Cloud squeezed free from Barret's grip, taking a few breaths before cocking an blonde eyebrow at him. "What do we need to get AVALANCHE back together for?"  
  
"Nothin', man! I just wanna see alla 'em again. Y'know, catch up."  
  
Cloud nodded. He missed them all too. Especially Tifa. He finished off his beer and set it down, pushing it away. "I see what you're saying, but I don't know how we can actually bring us all together again." Barret curled his large face, his beard moving up a couple of inches. "Why the hell not?"  
  
"Well for starters, we don't even know where everyone is. And the ones who we CAN locate are all leading new lives. Red's just starting out as the new chief of Cosmo Canyon, Yuffie's running a successful trading corporation in Wutai, Tifa's busy helping rebuild Sector 7, and Cid's building more airships in Junon. They all just can't drop what they're doing to get back together."   
  
"You're just being pessimistic."  
  
"No, I'm being REALISTIC. YOU can't even go. You've got Marlene to worry about."  
  
"I'll bring her wit me."  
  
"We don't even know were two other people are."  
  
"Doesn't mean we can't find 'em."  
  
Cloud shook his head, crushing a peanut shell with his thumb and forefinger. "Highly unlikely. Vincent's traveling the world now, digging up his past I suppose, and Reeve is somewhere in Midgar, doing God knows what." Reeve, as both of them knew, was the operator of the stuffed half-cat half-mog machine, Cait Sith. Although the machine had been rendered inoperative after the Meteor incident, he had been able to make contact with the rest of the group afterwards. That's until the Holy Effect occurred. Six months after the Meteor struck, communication devices began to go out all over the world, thus severing contact between all other lands remotely. When these devices were examined more closely, remnants of Holy materia was discovered, giving the phenomena its name. Ever since this occurred, Reeve nor the machine known as Cait Sith had been seen or heard of.  
  
"I'm sure we could find 'em somehow." Barret grunted.  
  
"I dunno, Barret. I don't even know if I have the time."  
  
"The fuck you talkin' 'bout? You ain't doin' nothin'!"  
  
"Yes, I am."  
  
"What? Raisin' chocobos? Yeah, I heard about that hokey-pokey shit you been doin' out in the country. Don't think I didn't, neither. S'far cry from bein' a Mako-'fused SOLDIER"  
  
Cloud shrugged. "It's a change for the better."  
  
Barret: "Haven't you ever wondered how everyone else's doin'? Don't you wanna SEE 'em again? You wanna spend the rest o' yo borin'-ass life cleanin' up chocobo shit wonderin' what it would be like if you took one opportunity to see your old friends?"  
  
Cloud: "Of course not. It's just that the farm is just beginning to get on it's feet, most of my new birds are less than a year old, and I still have the problem of finding a good vendor to sell me greens to feed 'em. Plus there's those damn wolves that keep coming around the farm looking for an easy meal. I mean I WANNA see 'em, Barret, I really do. But I can't just drop everything to do it."   
  
Barret rolled his head back, stretching with his palm and gun-arm sprawling across the bar in front of him. "Sounds like you just don't care enough about 'em to make a few adjustments, what I think." Cloud's head snapped sideways, tearing holes into Barret's eye sockets with his glare.   
  
"They're called PRIORITIES, Barret. Marlene would be much better off if you could remember that, instead of running around the planet on a ShinRa headhunts so you could make a name for yourself. Almost lost her doing that last time, remember?" A huge black arm reached out and snatched Cloud by the collar of his shirt, violently pulling him to Barret's face as his gun-arm came and pressed harshly on the ex-mercenary's chin, a huge, gaping hole from one of the chambers of the gatling cutting a hot mark on his jaw. Barret spoke like a castrated bull, his liquored breath washing over Cloud's face.  
  
"Don't you EVA insult my competency as a father. EVA! Everything I did three years ago and even before was for HER, not for ME, HER. You think I wanted her to grow up in that shit? Livin' in a slum under a fuckin' pizza built by a buncha dickless money-grubbin' mothafuckers that didn't give a shit whether their children lived to see their planet ALIVE or not, wonderin' whether you could put food on the table for you and your family if you DIDN'T work for those sons-o-bitches? They were MONSTERS, man! Did you see what they did to Sephiroth? They did it, Cloud! They drove that sonofabitch insane! And NOW look at the consequences. No, mothafucker, I did it all so I could at least say I TRIED to make the future brighter for my baby girl. So don't you go struttin' yo shit, tryin' to pin my daughter to my ass. I'm a DAMN good father, and thanks to me, my baby WILL have a betta life than mine, an' so will a million other kids like her! So you can just KISS MY BIG BLACK ASS!" With that, Barret pushed one of the most powerful men in the world away from him, damn near throwing him off his stool, his words gripping Cloud tighter than his hands were. What was left of the gentle hum of banter in the bar ripped to a state of eerie silence, all eyes and ears focused on the two men sitting at the bar, Barret staring angrily down at the bar, Cloud staring at Barret, a look of surprise on his face that hadn't appeared in a long time. His fist was clenched, visible tendrils of energy snaking around it like a glowing blue serpent. By this time, the bar had cleared out completely, all fearing the fray that would most assuredly come.  
  
But it didn't. Cloud gripped his buster sword and walked to the door, not speaking a word to Barret. Barret, however, turned and spoke to the SOLDIER, his face riddled with a mixture of guilt and anger. "You ain't a father. You wouldn't understand." With that, Cloud walked out of the door, his mind instantly other thoughts. His oldest chocobo, Meryl, was due for birth in a few days, maybe even that day. He had to be there for that. 


End file.
